March 10, 2009

• Ken just took this picture of the neighbor’s snowman.  This one is even bigger than the one they built a couple years ago!  You can see our tiny house in the background to the right. 
  This is a great family.  They have 4 boys, the youngest is in high school.  S., the youngest, kind of “adopted” Ken when we first moved in here almost 10 yrs. ago.  In the summers he would come over and follow Ken around in the yard and talk.  Neat kid.  Now that he is “grown up”, we don’t see him as often, but he always comes around to sell things for band, soccer, etc. at school.  He will then sit and yak for quite a while. 
  One of their boys was valedictorian a few years ago.  Wonderful family–couldn’t ask for better neighbors.
  

  On Sunday we went to Lutheran High.  It was their “Showcase Sunday”.  This is a fundraiser to get things for the school that are not in the budget.  This year they will use the funds to renovate the gym.
  They serve a lunch, have entertainment, and have silent and oral auctions.  They also had a room with gently used clothes.  I didn’t get to see this room, but it is mostly dressy things—like prom dresses—for those who cannot afford to buy new gowns.
  The auction items are all donated by churches, businesses and individuals.  I saw some gardening things I liked, but abstained from bidding.  We have so much “stuff”, we really don’t NEED anything. 
  The main reason we went was to see our local grandson, Avery, perform.  He is in both the big choir and the “swing” choir.  We hadn’t been able to see him when they would sing at various churches, and thought this might be our only chance to see him perform.
  They did a great job.  One of the swing choir songs was “Java Jive” (I think that was the name).  Several of the kids had little individual solos of “skat”.  Avery was the first at one microphone for his couple seconds worth of solo—-and the microphone wasn’t turned on!!  Poor guy.  His one solo—-and nobody could hear it!
  They only did one piece with dancing, and Avery was front and center.  Took a movie of it with my camera.  They did very well.  Good job, Av!!!!
  It is always sentimental to watch the Lancer Singers.  Son, Greg, was a member of the same group back in 1981.  Then his daughter, Lydia, was in the group when she was a Senior.  Now, Avery is in the group.  I wonder if any of the younger ones will follow, too.  Silas wasn’t in the group.  He was in a band with several of his friends, and they performed at the Showcase Sunday when he was a Junior.  Then he went to the public high school for his Senior year, and graduated from there.
  Today I hope to get around to commenting on some of your blogs.  I have been very remiss in this, and I apologize.  As I keep saying, I have been reading my subscriptions, but know we all like comments, too!  Don’t know how far I will get.
  Weather is messy.  Rain right now on top of all the snow.  In fact, it started lightly snowing on our way to the high school on Sunday, but had stopped by the time we came home.  Once we were home it started again with a vengeance—a real blizzard!!  As you can see by the snowman picture, there is still a LOT of snow on the ground in areas.  Our front yard isn’t bad—lots of trees to block the snow, but in back, between the house and garage, it is quite high yet.
  
  We bought a new heated bird bath this winter.  The tray was bigger than our old one and didn’t fit into the stand we had.  So Ken improvised—-hence the upside-down garbage can!  We have discovered the birds like this bird bath much more than the old one.  Ken said that it mentioned on the box that the company found out that the larger bath was more desirable to the birds.  We have had lots of birds using it this year—maybe 10 times more than previously.  The little piece of wood near the back is for the squirrels to climb up on to drink the water.  Kind of weird—-Ken doesn’t like the squirrels around because they eat the bird seed, but he makes it easy for them to get the water.  Go figure!
  

  • 1:54 pm
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